European clothing retailers were told to 'get real' and quit complaining about recent trade restraints placed on textiles and clothing imports from China. And their current campaign against EU action was described as 'verging on the hysterical and devoid of substance' by Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF).

The European Union and China opened trade talks after the EU halted imports of Chinese textiles goods which had breached quota limits agreed earlier in the year. As a result, stocks of sweaters, trousers, bras and other garments have been piling up in European port wharehouses since July.

Says Mr. Kearney: "Like lemmings, European and US retailers rushed headlong into China when trade regulation in the textile and clothing sector ended at the beginning of the year".